History of Warren County, Pennsylvania       

The earliest documented history of Warren County, Pennsylvania, dates back to the Paleo and Archaic eras uncovered during an archaeological dig at the Buckaloons in Brokenstraw Township, 8,000 BC. The 1941 Sugar Run Mounds excavation in the Kinzua area uncovered the existence of the Hopewellian peoples in the northeast corner of the county between 200 BC through 500 AD. A 1964 discovery by Dr. Stanley Lantz led to a 30-year excavation project that proved the existence of a prehistoric Native American culture that occupied the Middle Allegheny River region between 960 and 1360 AD.
In the Sixteenth Century, the Seneca tribe, part of the Iroquois Nation, controlled the area, and in 1749, French explorer Celeron de Blainville led an expedition sent by the new French government to establish sovereignty. Celeron buried a lead plate near the mouth of the Conewango Creek to signify France’s sovereignty. During the ensuing years, after the French influence ended and the Revolutionary War had begun, Cornplanter, the most noted Seneca Chief, aligned with the British. After the war, Chief Cornplanter became a defender of the new American government and in 1796, the government gifted him and his heirs several parcels of land. The Cornplanter Grant, located in Warren County, became his home until his death in 1836.
In 1795, the town of Warren was laid out by General William Irvine and surveyor Andrew Ellicott. Warren's first structure was a log building erected by the Holland Land Company as a supply depot. In about 1806, the first settlers began to locate in Warren, and the town was incorporated as a borough in 1832. The earliest inhabitants were Scotch-Irish, followed by successive waves of immigrants from Germany, Sweden, and Italy.
In 1797, John Chapman, aka Appleseed, spent the winter in the Brokenstraw Valley bunking with Mathew Young, Youngsville’s namesake, and planted his first apple orchard near Garland. This was the location of the first store in Warren County.
In 1800, Warren County was formed. Nine hundred two square miles were erected out of Lycoming and Allegheny Counties by an act of legislature. From 1800 to 1805, Warren County was attached to Crawford County for judicial purposes, and from 1805 to 1819, to Venango County. In 1819, after a sufficient increase in population, Warren County was established bordering on the north by New York State, on the east by McKean County, on the west by Crawford and Erie Counties, and on the south by Venango and Forest Counties. Originally, hardwood forest covered much of the western portion, while large stands of pine and hemlock grew in the creek alleys and southeast of the Allegheny River. The river and its three major tributaries in Warren County—the Conewango, Brokenstraw and Kinzua Creeks—were natural waterways for the rafting of lumber, which was the county's main industry for many years. Sawing and rafting of lumber continued to be a major activity late in the 1800s. Prior to 1830, only the keelboat provided two-way river transportation from Pittsburgh. Following 1830, with the arrival of the steamer "Allegheny," a succession of steamboats from Pittsburgh served as transportation until the early 1860s, just a few years after the Sunbury and Erie Railroad was completed from Erie to Warren.
Beginning in 1826, stagecoaches operated for over 75 years in Warren County, running between Dunkirk and Warren, Franklin and Warren, and Sugar Grove and Jamestown.
In 1854, the Miller and Younie families of Sugar Grove hosted the June 17 & 18 Abolitionist Convention that was attended by Frederick Douglas who later reported in his newspaper The North Star that it was, “The Crowning Convention of Them All!”
After the 1859 discovery of oil in neighboring Venango County, the Tidioute Grandin family became the second to drill for oil prompting the onset of many oil boom towns in the area. The first free flowing oil well in the world was drilled in Tidioute on August 13, 1860. In 1861, Henry R. Rouse suffered fatal burns in an oil well fire, leaving his estate to the improvement of roads and bridges and aiding the poor of Warren County. His legacy is still active today.
By the 1880s, Warren had become a hub of railroads leading in all directions, farming began to flourish, the manufacturing of furniture and other wood products expanded; large tanning operations in the Sheffield area expanded; the fabrication of products from iron began its steady climb; and, as time progressed, 13 refineries existed within an eight-mile radius of Warren.
In 1923, the Allegheny National Forest was established as a result of the 1911 Congressional Act. Due to 80 years of timber removal for many different uses, the once lush forest land had become greatly depleted leaving barren hillsides as far as the eye could see. The motto “Land of Many Uses” was adopted and the goal of a healthy, vigorous forest that provides wood products, watershed protection, a variety of wildlife habitats and recreational opportunities became sustainable. The establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s proved to be advantageous for the area’s forests as well.
In 1965, the Kinzua Dam and Allegheny Reservoir were built to provide flood and pollution control from Warren to Pittsburgh. The dam became a great source of hydropower and one of the most popular recreational areas in the northeast United States. The remainder of the dry land was integrated into Mead Township, and the Cornplanter heirs were alleviated of their ancestral land.
In 1999, the National Park Service listed the Warren Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places, denoting almost 600 structures within the City of Warren as historically significant. In 2021, Tidioute and Youngsville were named “Heart & Soul” communities by PA Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

Michelle A. Gray, Managing Director
Warren County Historical Society